Semester 2010B Call For Proposals

Gemini Observatory invites its community to propose scientific investigations for the 2010B semester,
1 August 2010 - 31 January 2011. The Call is open to all partners.

The submission deadline is WEDNESDAY MARCH 31 2010.
Applications should be submitted via your national Gemini
proposal process. Submission times and other details vary by partner; please consult your National Gemini Office pages for more information. Multi-partner joint
proposals should be submitted by the deadline of the partner country to which the Principal Investigator is affiliated.

The purpose of this page is to highlight the most relevant information
for the 2010B call. Significant additional information is
contained on supporting pages; users are encouraged to follow the
links for more detailed information. If hardcopy is preferred, the
primary pages are available as a single pdf document.

Target
accessibility limits will be imposed, so as not to bias the queue at the start or end of the
semester. The target accessibility limits for 2010B are,
for Gemini North 17 < RA < 13.5 and -37 < dec < +79, and for Gemini South
16 < RA < 12 and -89 < dec < +28. There are
additional constraints if a program requires
unrestricted access (e.g. MOS observations requiring pre-imaging, long observations or observations with strict constraints), and also for LGS programs at Gemini North.

In 2010B instrument access to ports is complex at both telescopes, due to planned engineering, instrument upgrades and commissioning. Details are given in the telescopes sections below.
Although this Call does not restrict RA availability for any of the instruments, it is expected that access will need to be restricted once the engineering schedule is known and the demand is determined at the International Time Allocation Committee meeting.

The community should note that the Observatory requires proposals which use the full range of observing conditions. This includes proposals that can use cloudy
CC90 conditions, which implies a loss of signal of between 30% (CC70) and a factor of 6.

The Phase I Tool (PIT) is updated for 2010B; See the
PIT page for downloads and important
information. Starting in 2010B word limits will be imposed for the abstract, science and technical justification sections for PIT submissions to all partners. The limits are 200, 1000 and 1000 words respectively.

Gemini North

It is expected that 85% of the semester will be available for science. This amounts to 156 nights and includes 12 nights for
GNIRS science verification (SV) and 1.5 nights for demonstration science with the upgraded GMOS-N. These nights are distributed across the partnership. A list of instruments and capabilities is given below.

GMOS-North is expected to be available with new red-sensitive CCDs from 1 December 2010. Proposals are welcomed which can take advantage of the improved red response, and
the new Z and Y filters, for targets with 2 < RA < 13.5. Proposals
for which the improved red response is necessary should not be submitted for targets with 17 < RA < 2.
The Integration Time Calculator
will be available for both the new and old detectors. Time requests for targets with 17 < RA < 2
should be based on the old detectors, and those for targets with 2 < RA < 13.5 should be based on the new detectors. The instrument will be unavailable for a four week period during the detector upgrade.

Michelle will most likely only be available for two short periods during the semester, depending on demand.

Gemini South

It is expected that 76% of the time will be
available for science use on Gemini South in 2010B. This amounts to 140 nights,
and includes 18 nights of NICI
campaign science. These nights are distributed across the
partnership. A list of instruments and capabilities is given below. Due to the need to balance the queue, and the
traditionally high demand for GMOS-S dark time programs, bright time programs on Gemini South are
particularly encouraged.

The telescope will be shut down for 24 nights for mirror coating, probably during September to October 2010.

NICI, the AO-fed Near-Infrared
Coronagraphic Imager, will be available to the community in 2010B in the L band, on a shared risk basis. The M band is not useful due to saturation when using the broadband filter. Note that the good observing
conditions required for NICI are much more likely in the second half of the semester.
See below for other restrictions.

Exchange

Up to 5 bright/gray
nights of classical time are available with the HIRESoptical spectrograph
on Keck. The requested nights must be within the following windows
with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 2 nights in any one window:
August 17 - 30, October 16 - 27 and December 14 - 25. Proposals should be submitted via the normal
Gemini process. All proposers for Keck time must also complete the Keck cover page. Email this page
to your NTAC chair. [more
information]

5 to 10 classical
nights are available on Subaru with
COMICS (mid-infrared camera and spectrograph),
FOCAS (optical faint object camera and spectrograph),
HDS
(optical high dispersion spectrograph),
IRCS (infrared camera and spectrograph, with Natural Guide Star Adaptive Optics capability),
MOIRCS
(near-infrared imager and multi-object spectrograph) and
Suprime-Cam(wide field optical imager).
The Subaru nights will be distributed across bright, grey and dark
periods with typically 2 or 3 nights in each of these moon phases,
depending on the total number of nights allocated. A minimum of 1 and a
maximum of 4 nights can be requested in the following windows only:
bright - October 17 - 26 or December 16 - 24,
grey - December 11 - 15,
dark - November 2 - 8 or December 31 - January 6.
The final schedule is dependent on allocation and instrument availability. Note that Subaru may be closed
between August and September.
Proposals should be submitted via the normal Gemini process. [more
information]

Additional Information

Details of the capabilities available at
each Gemini telescope are given below. Please see the page of supporting information for
additional general information.

Gemini North: Facilities

All instruments are offered in queue and
classical
mode, except for Laser Guide Star AO which is queue mode only.

Facility instruments:

GMOS North
- 0.36-1.10 micron imager and
spectrograph: imaging and long-slit, multi-object and integral field spectroscopy.
5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately R=26 for imaging and R=21-23 for spectroscopy.

NIRI
- 1-5 micron imager and low-resolution spectrograph: imaging and spectroscopy fed
with the direct or AO-corrected beam. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately
K=23 for imaging and K=18 for spectroscopy.

NIFS - 0.95-2.40 micron integral
field unit spectrograph: IFU spectroscopy fed with the direct or AO-corrected beam. 5σ one
hour point source sensitivities are approximately K=18.7.

Altair - facility AO
system: for
use with NIRI (except M band imaging and L & M band spectroscopy) and NIFS.

Michelle -
7-26 micron spectrograph and imager: imaging and R=100-3000 and echelle spectroscopy; imaging
polarimetry is also available. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately N=11 for
imaging and N=6-9 for spectroscopy.

See the target accessibility page for important information regarding
instrument availability and a plot of accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2010B targets
must be limited to
17 < RA < 13.5, and -37 < dec < +79, the LGS system has a
stricter elevation constraint of >40 degrees.

Gemini South: Facilities

GMOS South
- 0.36-0.95 micron imager and spectrograph: imaging and long-slit, multi-object and integral
field spectroscopy. 5σ one hour point source sensitivities are approximately R=26 for imaging and
R=21-23 for spectroscopy. GMOS South has slightly better sensitivity in the UV and blue than GMOS
North.

NICI - 1-5 micron dual-channel coronagraphic
imager: In 2010B NICI is
offered for community use for
both coronagraphic and non-coronagraphic imaging. The L band is available on a shared risk basis.
AO guiding on extended targets (up to 0.8") is available on a shared risk basis.
For coronagraphic imaging the occulted target should also be the AO guide target.
The Campaign Targets are not available for
community NICI observations.
Constraints must be at least as good as Cloud Cover = 50% and Image Quality = 70%.

T-ReCS - 8-26 micron
imager and spectrograph: imaging and moderate resolution (R=100 and R=1000) spectroscopy. 5σ
one hour point source sensitivities are approximately N=11 for imaging and N=8 for spectroscopy .

See the target
accessibility page for important information regarding instrument availability and a plot of
accessible RA and Declination. For Semester 2010B targets must be limited to 16 < RA < 12,
and -89 < dec < +28.

Questions and Answers

All questions concerning proposals, or any other subject, should be
made using the Gemini
HelpDesk. This web-based
system will send the request to your National Gemini Office staff in
the first instance
who will then escalate it to Gemini staff if necessary.

Comments and suggestions on the format
and content of this page and supporting pages are welcome, and should be sent
to Sandy Leggett.